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This is book number 1 in the Greystone Secrets series.
Chess, Finn, and Emma Greystone come home one day to discover that kids sharing their names and birthdays have been kidnapped. The next day when their mother leaves them in the care of a friend while she goes on a a strange business trip, they decide to investigate. It only gets stranger from there on. The book gets off to a slow start but picks up the pace near the middle. If you like action, adventure and mystery, you'll love this first book in the Greystone Secrets series.
— From Sawyer, Age 9
Told in alternating perspectives of all three Greystone kids, The Strangers by Margaret Peterson Haddix makes sure to get readers attention in the first chapter. In this book, the Greystone siblings live with their mom in a normal sort of neighborhood. However, when they come home from school one day, they find out about three kidnapped children who have the same first and middle name and ages and birthdates to them. Are the Greystone kids kidnapped? If not, who are these kids? Then their mom leaves on a work trip, leaving them with her friend, Mrs. Morales. After a little while, they realize that their mom isn’t on the work trip that she said she was. Where did she go and why couldn’t she tell them? As they search for their mom, they uncover some dangerous secrets.Will they be able to stay together to solve this mystery? If you like suspenseful books that are hard to put down, then this book is the one for you.
— From Katie's Picks
“The three Greystone children live a happy and comfortable life with their mom in Ohio, but things change when three kids in Arizona are kidnapped — kids who have the same first and middle names and birthdates as Finn, Emma, and Chess Greystone. Suddenly, their mom seems distracted and takes off on short notice for what she says is a business trip, leaving the kids in the care of a woman they don’t know and with a letter written in code, a hidden room in their basement, and a tunnel that leads to... This is the first volume in an action-packed middle-grade suspense series, and I’m eager to learn what happens next!”
— Susan Posch, The Book Shoppe (IA), Boone, IA
New York Times bestselling author Margaret Peterson Haddix takes readers on a thrilling adventure filled with mysteries and plot twists aplenty in this absorbing series about family and friendships. Perfect for fans of A Wrinkle in Time and The City of Ember! This middle grade novel is an excellent choice for tween readers in grades 5 to 6, especially during homeschooling. It’s a fun way to keep your child entertained and engaged while not in the classroom.
What makes you you?
The Greystone kids thought they knew. Chess has always been the protector over his younger siblings, Emma loves math, and Finn does what Finn does best—acting silly and being adored. They’ve been a happy family, just the three of them and their mom.
But everything changes when reports of three kidnapped children reach the Greystone kids, and they’re shocked by the startling similarities between themselves and these complete strangers. The other kids share their same first and middle names. They’re the same ages. They even have identical birthdays. Who, exactly, are these strangers?
Before Chess, Emma, and Finn can question their mom about it, she takes off on a sudden work trip and leaves them in the care of Ms. Morales and her daughter, Natalie. But puzzling clues left behind lead to complex codes, hidden rooms, and a dangerous secret that will turn their world upside down.
Praise for The Strangers:
"A secret-stacked, thrilling series opener about perception, personal memories, and the idiosyncrasies that form individual identities." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)
* Winter 2018–2019 Kids' Indie Next List Pick * Indie Bestseller * Time for Kids Book Club: Top 10 Summer Reads * PW Best Books 2019 * Texas Bluebonnet Award List 2020-2021 * 2020 LITA Excellence in Children’s and Young Adult Science Fiction Notable Book: The Eleanor Cameron Notable Middle Grade Books List *
Margaret Peterson Haddix grew up on a farm in Ohio. As a kid, she knew two girls who had the exact same first, middle, and last names and shared the same birthday—only one year apart—and she always thought that was bizarre.
As an adult, Haddix worked as a newspaper reporter and copy editor in Indiana before her first book, Running Out of Time, was published. She has since written more than forty books for kids and teens, including the Greystone Secrets series, the Shadow Children series, the Missing series, the Children of Exile series, and lots of stand-alones. Haddix and her husband, Doug, now live in Columbus, Ohio, where they raised their two kids. You can learn more about her at www.haddixbooks.com.